As useful as it would be to interact with smartphones and other gadgets by chatting casually with them, the technology to enable such a simple but meaningful back...Scientific AmericanFrom ACM Opinion | April 27, 2018

Cambridge Analytica's wholesale scraping of Facebook user data is familiar news by now, and we are all "shocked" that personal data are being shared and traded...Scientific AmericanFrom ACM Opinion | April 25, 2018

Whenever an impressive new technology comes along, people rush to imagine the havoc it could wreak on society, and they overreact. Today we see this happening with...Scientific AmericanFrom ACM Opinion | April 17, 2018

It is not unusual for tech companies to spar with law enforcement over access to customer data. Most cases, however, do not go all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court...Scientific AmericanFrom ACM Opinion | March 2, 2018

In 2015 I was watching a dress rehearsal for a play about love, loss and aging. In a climactic scene, the lead actress gesticulated and shouted, while her co-star...Scientific AmericanFrom ACM Opinion | January 18, 2018

Hundreds of gadget makers and software companies at this week's annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas are staking the success of their newest products...Scientific AmericanFrom ACM Opinion | January 10, 2018

The biggest knock against sending robots to explore the solar system for signs of life has always been their inability to make intuitive, even creative decisions...Scientific AmericanFrom ACM Opinion | December 28, 2017

On a spring day more than 5,000 years ago in the Mesopotamian city of Ur, a foreign merchant sold his wares in exchange for a large bundle of silver.
Scientific AmericanFrom ACM Opinion | December 14, 2017

With Texas just beginning to recover from the devastation wrought by Hurricane Harvey and the Southeastern U.S. preparing for Hurricane Irma's iminent arrival, people...Scientific AmericanFrom ACM Opinion | September 13, 2017

Two weeks ago it was cyberattacks on the Irish power grid. Last month it was a digital assault on U.S. energy companies, including a nuclear power plant. Back in...Scientific AmericanFrom ACM Opinion | August 31, 2017

We the people have always been helplessly drawn to the concept of magic: the notion that you can will something to happen by wiggling your nose, speaking special...Scientific AmericanFrom ACM Opinion | August 16, 2017